Today in History Saturday, Dec. 22

■ On Dec. 22, 1912, Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson, was born Claudia Alta Taylor in Karnack, Texas.

■ In 1775, Esek Hopkins was appointed the commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy.

■ In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman said in a message to President Abraham Lincoln: “I beg to present you as a Christmas-gift the city of Savannah.”

■ In 1894, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. (Dreyfus was eventually vindicated.)

■ In 1910, a fire lasting more than 26 hours broke out at the Chicago Union Stock Yards; 21 firefighters were killed in the collapse of a burning building.

■ In 1937, the first, center tube of the Lincoln Tunnel connecting New York City and New Jersey underneath the Hudson River was opened to traffic. (The north tube opened in 1945, the south tube in 1957.)